Downhole packers are commonly used in many oilfield applications for the purpose of sealing against the flow of fluid to isolate one or more portions of a wellbore for the purposes of testing, treating, or producing the well. The packers are suspended in the wellbore, or in a casing in the wellbore, from a tubing string, or the like, and are activated, or set, so that one or more packer elements engage the inner surface of the wellbore or casing. These packers also include one or more slips which, when set, are anchored to the inner surface of the wellbore to hold the packer in place.
However, after the packers have been set in the wellbore in the above manner, relative movement between the packer and the casing can occur which can adversely affect the performance of the packer.
Accordingly, what is needed is a system and method for monitoring the packer movement, or slippage.